Salad Garden

My neighbor Dave and I, well, mostly Dave, built a salad garden to keep on the veranda earlier this month. I planted arugula (from Chandra) and some other seeds that Dave passed on to me including two kinds of chard. Week two and it's looking good; everything has survived the cold weather. I stopped putting the cover on it a few days ago.

As is my custom this time of year, every morning I scour the yard looking for any sign of new growth in the form of green plants waking up from their winter sleep. It still looks pretty grim out there but there are tiny buds on the peach tree and some somethings that I put in last year are showing their hardy selves (I'm pretty sure it's swamp daisy but wouldn't swear to it). Looks like the blueberry bushes are coming back so the birds will be all over them pretty soon (I'm sure I won't get a berry at all but that's okay). The Red Bud still suffers...if it lives in spite of my lousy location choice it will be miraculous. Strawberries were fine all winter as were the Stokes Aster. The native azalea looks pitiful but it's got buds and I expect their fireworks soon.